Liz Gilbert, author of the international bestseller Eat, Pray, Love spoke at Oprah’s “The Life You Want Weekend” recently and said something rather controversial about finding your passion:

“I’m going to say something really weird and it’s going to surprise you… I’m going to speak out for a second against passion.”

“You spend a lot of your life having people tell you to follow your passion. It’s nice advice, it’s heart-warming advice, it’s great advice — if you happen to have one that is very clear and obvious”

But what if you’re like me (and the majority of the human race) and don’t have a single clear passion, then what do you do? The idea that you must find your passion before starting anything keeps you in a holding pattern forever.

And as Gilbert went on to say it can even make you miserable:

“Sometimes it feels cruel and all it does is make you feel even worse and more left out, because you’re like, ‘I would if I knew what it was!'”

“If you’re in that position right now… forget about passion.”

Instead, she suggests something more practical:

“Follow your curiosity”

“Passion is rare; passion is a one-night-stand. Passion is hot, it burns. Every day, you can’t access that.”



So what do you think of Gilbert’s advice?

Do you already have a clear passion? And if so, have you acted on it?

If not here’s something that might help.



What are your micro-passions?

If you simply note where your curiosity and enjoyment lies at the moment and follow it, I have found you will come across your micro-passions – small areas of life that fascinate or excite you right now.

As I mentioned, I don’t have one big passion. But I do have plenty of micro-passions.


Here are just a few of my micro-passions:

• The future of work and value creation in the 21st century
• Non-fiction writing that teaches new ways to see the world and get what you want
• Innovative user-interface design in software and hardware
• Productivity apps and software
• Endocrinology
• The science of happiness
• Psychological differences between the genders
• The cultural differences revealed in language
• The rules of punctuation and grammar in English
• The best coffee in London
• High protein breakfasts
• Building good looking websites quickly
• Automation software
• Standup comedy
• Interviews with famous authors, comedians, musicians, entrepreneurs and creative people
• The future of publishing
• High end audio-visual technology
• Modern architecture and skyscrapers and bars/restaurants with a dramatic view of a city



How’s that for variety? And this is just a small selection. What’s great for me is that I can use a huge number of my micro-passions in a single business (because I designed it that way)

So what are your micro-passions?

Share your top 3 in the comments. I’d love to know…